520 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



accomplished in the required time ' ; and whether I could do that 

 was asked over and over again. . . . The greatest trouble " (refer- 

 ring to the days before they had a printing-press) " was the lack of 

 printed matter, I met no criticism from parents and much praise. 

 Especially was this true of the work in literature. . . . The criti- 

 cism of tenest given by visiting teachers is on the ' big words/ as 

 they call them.'' Elsewhere, in regard to these " big words/' she 

 says : " They " (the children) " were proud of their new possessions, 

 and lost no opportunity to use them and use them correctly. The 

 so-called ' big words/ when they express a definite idea, are remem- 

 bered with ease, while their humbler sisters which express nothing 

 tangible are more readily forgotten. . . . We can say emphatically 

 that the work can be done in the public schools, and that both 

 teachers and pupils are benefited thereby." 



Another Englewood teacher wrote me : " The teacher gains an 

 impetus in searching for and assimilating real truth to give to 

 the waiting little ones. ... I believe the parents of our children 

 are becoming awakened, for children tell me of searches made at 

 home to answer whys and hows, whens and wheres, that have 

 been raised in the work at school." 



Miss Walter, critic teacher at the Oswego (New York) State 

 Normal School, after a visit to Englewood in February, 1890, 

 wrote me : *' It has been my good fortune to see within the last 

 week some of the best school work I have ever seen. ... It was 

 in the rooms of Miss MacChesney, Miss Quackenbush, and others 

 that I saw such admirable work. . . . Miss MacChesney is car- 

 rying out, in a wise and careful manner, an ideal line of work." 



In closing this account of the new work at Englewood I can 

 not do better than to give quotations from two letters received 

 from Mr. Orville T. Bright, the superintendent under whom all 

 this experimental work has been done. He says : 



Decemher 15, 1889.—" We are now harder than ever at work 

 studying how to make observation a living element in our schools. 

 . . . We have thirty— yes, forty teachers now who are thoroughly 

 in earnest in the matter." 



Maxell 9, 1890.—" It is about three years since Miss MacChes- 

 ney began the work. Miss Quackenbush soon followed, and the 

 next year Miss Phelps, all in the Lewis School ; . . . and the fact 

 was demonstrated beyond a doubt that fifty children are no bar 

 to the success of a teacher in training little children to observe in 

 subjects pertaining to science. 



" All our primary teachers slowly wheeled into line. We had 

 numerous meetings and discussions on the subject, and every 

 one who tried the work was convinced. The stand of the super- 

 intendent had been misunderstood from the first, but he did not 

 think it wise to force matters. He wished teachers to undertake 



